Hi guys,
There has been a lot of talk and speculation as to whether I juries have played a significant part in our downfall this season.
I've been going through the line ups of the games we won and lost prior to Romero and Mickey both getting injured and before the main crisis begun. Radu played in a couple of those games. Losing one defender is not a crisis considered normal.
These are the results and the line up for each. As is clearly evident even with a first choice defence we are losing regularly. Not conceding as many but still losing to the like of palace and Ipswich, two teams without a win at that stage...
Leicester 1-1 Draw
1 G. Vicario
13 D. Udogie
23 P.Porro
37 M. van de Ven
17 C. Romero
30 R. Bentancur
22 B. Johnson
7 H. Son (C)
10 J. Maddison
29 P. Sarr
19 D. Solanke
Newcastle 2-1 Defeat
G. Vicario
7
13 D. Udogie
17 C. Romero
CO R. Dragusin
23 P. Porro
8 Y. Bissouma
10 J. Maddison
29 P. Sarr 7
H. Son (C)
21 D. Kulusevski
28 W. Odobert
Arsenal 0-1 Defeat
1
G. Vicario
37 M.van de Ven
13 D. Udogie
23 P. Porro
17 C. Romero
21 D. Kulusevski
30 R. Bentancur
10 J. Maddison
7 H. Son (C)
22B. Johnson
19 D. Solanke
Brighton 3-2 Defeat
G. Vicario
13 D. Udogie
17 C. Romero (C)
23 P. Porro
37 M. van de Ven
30 R. Bentancur
22 B. Johnson
21 D. Kulusevski
10 J. Maddison
16 T. Werner
19 D. Solanke
Ipswich 2-1 Defeat
G. Vicario
6 R. Dragusin
23 P. Porro
13 D. Udogie
17 C. Romero
30 R. Bentancur
21 D. Kulusevski
29 P. Sarr
22 B. Johnson
19 D. Solanke
7 H. Son (C)
Crystal palace 0-1 Defeat
G. Vicario
37 M. van de Ven
23 P. Porro
13 D. Udogie 17
C. Romero (C)
21 D. Kulusevski
8 Y. Bissouma
10 J. Maddison
22 B. Johnson
19 D. Solanke
47 M. Moore
What do we think ? Is Ange leaning too heavily into the injury crisis ? Goals conceded have certainly gone up, but the poor results for were very much present prior to this.
Form of offensive players such as solanke and kulu has significantly improved, so maybe with this defenders back things wouldn't be quite so bad
But in my opinion the lack of change to accommodate the players available, the poor in game management even when options were available on the bench and the failure to address some glaring areas of concern are enough to question Ange as much as I like him.
Injuries to blame - Fact Vs Fiction
posted 5 hours, 42 minutes ago
comment by T-BAD (U11806)
posted 1 minute ago
I guess you can negate the risk but if you wanna play as a top team, pragmatic or not you're always gonna run that risk. VDV is obviously great but he might just be one of those players that can't do what he needs to.
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Absolutely this, he is a great player but he can’t play the high line consistently as his hamstrings won’t let him. Vicario is a great shot stopper but he can’t command his area aerially.
BJ is great at running on to the ball and finishing things off, but he can’t do faaack all with the ball at his feet with a man in front of him. Porto is a dream of a full back going forwards but can’t actually defend.
It’s all square pegs and round holes
posted 5 hours, 32 minutes ago
I wrote a similar article on this. Few points though - when you have players out, aren’t you supposed to adapt? Having gray/davies and dragu in CB and playing the same is mind boggling.
Ange barely rotated when everyone was fit - look how he’s treated Spence. Reguillon incognito. Furthermore look at how he rushed back vdv and romero! He’s lucky the back ups are even playing their heart out for him considering how they’ve been cast aside.
posted 5 hours, 29 minutes ago
You can go back to last season with the losses. I think you'll find our pitiful end to that season was with a largely fit and available squad. No juggling of the squad then to accommodate Europe or cup games. Yet still the regular losses to any team in form. 4 losses back to back and 13 goals conceded and we had both Romero and VDV in our back 4 for each.
Injuries or not, the regular losses are a constant.
posted 5 hours, 28 minutes ago
comment by BISS Bash BOSSED (U8366)
posted 1 minute ago
I wrote a similar article on this. Few points though - when you have players out, aren’t you supposed to adapt? Having gray/davies and dragu in CB and playing the same is mind boggling.
Ange barely rotated when everyone was fit - look how he’s treated Spence. Reguillon incognito. Furthermore look at how he rushed back vdv and romero! He’s lucky the back ups are even playing their heart out for him considering how they’ve been cast aside.
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Yep, a lot of parallels with Pep. It’s fine if you have the best players in each position - but if you haven’t then you absolutely need to adapt.
All we do is just keep trying to create overloads in a congested area - teams can mitigate this and hurt the faaack out of us the other end.
Who was supposed to be marking Salah on Sunday?
posted 5 hours, 26 minutes ago
comment by BISS Bash BOSSED (U8366)
posted 2 minutes ago
I wrote a similar article on this. Few points though - when you have players out, aren’t you supposed to adapt? Having gray/davies and dragu in CB and playing the same is mind boggling.
Ange barely rotated when everyone was fit - look how he’s treated Spence. Reguillon incognito. Furthermore look at how he rushed back vdv and romero! He’s lucky the back ups are even playing their heart out for him considering how they’ve been cast aside.
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Good point that's been overlooked in all this. He helped cause Romero and VDV to be injured again by rushing them back. We all knew it was a risk and it was a risk that didn't pay off because we lost the game AND they got injured.
posted 5 hours, 25 minutes ago
Of course we have to take risk, I prefer this way to Conte, Jose ways any day of the week.
I disagree about porro being a dream going forward though, he flatters to deceive a lot of the time I think. He's ok just not worth the defensive lapses. Djed has shown he has a final ball, has a great engine, recovery pace, good in the air, reads it well, is strong. Seems logical he comes in especially in this system but Nage loves Porro.
Johnson, I'm not sure why we signed him or how w reached the decision he was the man. I didnt see it in him at forest and defo not now. He doesn't press too well, unless an opponent slips. As you said, rubbish with ball at his feet. Very weak and doesn't track back with any kind of authority..
The dispossession stats are very misleading... You often see article crop up saying x lost the ball x nom of times must be dropped. I was a scout for Salford city for 3 years and this stat could be debunked quiet easily. Kulu is one of the hardest players to shake off the ball, he gets surrounded at times.
Just found some stats, so here are the most dispossessed players. How many of these would you like at spurs .
Bruno Guimarães
41
Dejan Kulusevski
40
Omari Hutchinson
3.
38
Jarrod Bowen
35
Bukayo Saka
35
o
Morgan Rogers
34
Mohamed Salah
34
posted 5 hours, 20 minutes ago
comment by Spurtle (U1608)
posted 4 minutes ago
You can go back to last season with the losses. I think you'll find our pitiful end to that season was with a largely fit and available squad. No juggling of the squad then to accommodate Europe or cup games. Yet still the regular losses to any team in form. 4 losses back to back and 13 goals conceded and we had both Romero and VDV in our back 4 for each.
Injuries or not, the regular losses are a constant.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Very well said...
The end of last season was almost forgotten. No cup commitments as you say and I think we all expected when we had a fully fit team we'd be back in business.
It terms out the first 10 games was the blip not the norm. I seem to remember many of those games being a lottery also.
Been a good debate. We've bought evidence to back up our argument... I've really lost faith in the man. The doubts started with Chelsea last season and nothing has happened since to calm the worries that he's not the man.
posted 4 hours, 24 minutes ago
Ange is arrogant and naive..... He's miles out of his depth..... Spurs have some good plyers. A manager would a bit of tactical nouse would get far more out of them than Ange is. The guy is a fraud
Potter is a cheap option, the guy at Bournemouth is very impressive... would happily have either
posted 2 hours, 55 minutes ago
I watched the post Liverpool press interview.
I will agree with these things that have been said on here.......
1. Ange is out of his depth
2. He is not going to change his game plan, the only one he has.
3. He thinks he has had bad luck with injuries.
4. He thinks his ideas will result in a winning team eventually.
Now I will add some notes of my own.......
1. I think he is beginning to doubt his ability to succeed here at Tottenham, ...just a little.
2. But he does not yet admit that that is his fault.
3. Yes he has had bad luck with injuries, and he's putting a lot of his doubts on that as the cause.
4. Could he succeed here to build a winning team, yes I think he has about a 25% chance of doing so.
5. Are the players still with him? Some are certainly, but all of them, I wonder?
What is Levy going to do? Early New year will tell us that, maybe nothing, maybe something!
Merry XMAS one and all!
posted 2 hours, 36 minutes ago
comment by GinolaSpurs82 (U10359)
posted 2 hours, 47 minutes ago
Of course we have to take risk, I prefer this way to Conte, Jose ways any day of the week.
I disagree about porro being a dream going forward though, he flatters to deceive a lot of the time I think. He's ok just not worth the defensive lapses. Djed has shown he has a final ball, has a great engine, recovery pace, good in the air, reads it well, is strong. Seems logical he comes in especially in this system but Nage loves Porro.
Johnson, I'm not sure why we signed him or how w reached the decision he was the man. I didnt see it in him at forest and defo not now. He doesn't press too well, unless an opponent slips. As you said, rubbish with ball at his feet. Very weak and doesn't track back with any kind of authority..
The dispossession stats are very misleading... You often see article crop up saying x lost the ball x nom of times must be dropped. I was a scout for Salford city for 3 years and this stat could be debunked quiet easily. Kulu is one of the hardest players to shake off the ball, he gets surrounded at times.
Just found some stats, so here are the most dispossessed players. How many of these would you like at spurs .
Bruno Guimarães
41
Dejan Kulusevski
40
Omari Hutchinson
3.
38
Jarrod Bowen
35
Bukayo Saka
35
o
Morgan Rogers
34
Mohamed Salah
34
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Excellent comment.